At a presentation on March 4, 2016, at the Jefferson County Quarterly Partnership Luncheon, Christopher Strong, Warning Coordination Meteorologist, Baltimore/Washington presented the County with a renewed StormReady County designation. In a letter to the County Commission president, Mr. Strong said, “It is with great pleasure that NOAA’s National Weather Service Baltimore/Washington Forecast Office officially renews Jefferson County’s status as a Storm-Ready county. Jefferson County was one of West Virginia’s first StormReady counties, and this continued recognition clearly shows your dedication to providing its citizens and visitors the best possible emergency preparedness. Your ability to monitor weather conditions, receive National Weather Service warnings, and disseminate life saving information to the public is exceptional. The citizens of Jefferson County are well served by these capabilities and your efforts to constantly improve. I would also like to specifically commend your Director of Emergency Management, Barbara Miller, who has been a driving force in maintaining the level of excellence needed for StormReady recognition. Together with the Jefferson County Homeland Security and Emergency Management staff, her initiative and hard work in training citizens and government agency workers, as well as maintaining strong ties with the National Weather Service, have been instrumental maintaining Jefferson County’s StormReady status…...Congratulations on this notable achievement. The National Weather Service is proud to continue to have you as a part of the growing StormReady family! Our office looks forward to continue to work closely with Jefferson County to maintain our valuable alliance.”
StormReady Community
Jefferson County has been designated as a StormReady Community since 2004. StormReady is a program through the National Weather Service. To be designated, a community must participate in activities including communications, National Weather Service information reception, hydro meteorological monitoring, local warning dissemination, community preparedness and administration. During 2008, the JCHSEM staff visited the new National Weather Service offices in Sterling, had staff from the NWS tour our new facility, offered basic and advanced Skywarn Stormspotter training, continue to maintain with the Jefferson County ECC a 24-hour warning point, have the required number of ways to receive severe weather warnings and forecasts to alert the public, have created a system that monitors weather conditions locally, promoted the importance of public readiness through community seminars, developed a hazardous weather that that includes training severe weather watchers. For more information on how to become a StormReady community visit https://www.weather.gov/stormready/.
